A Really Strange Parable | Episode 16

This week, we talked about the Parable of the Dishonest Manager and how we can learn from his shrewdness.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The gospel accounts are all about this coming kingdom. He's trying to wake his disciples up and wake us up to the way the kingdom is. Welcome back, everybody. This is the Year Through the Bible podcast. My name is Rodney Adams. I'm the executive director at Asbury Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And you are? I'm Andrew Forrest. I'm the senior pastor at Asbury. And we are reading through the Bible, uh, the entire Bible this year as a church. We're reading the one-year Bible format, which means there's an Old Testament, a New Testament, a Psalm and a Proverb every single day. And I know I say that all the time on this podcast, but I feel like saying it over and over again matters because you can't overstate how different it is to read the Bible in this way for most of us. We're trying to read the entire thing in a year, and also we're reading different genres of literature and different formats and different the authors of these different readings every day had different goals and different purposes. And so I just want to say our the the whole point of this podcast is to help you, the Bible reader, make it through the entire year as we're reading through the Bible. That's the whole purpose of this. So we've primarily been in the Old Testament. We've said this before, it's because, for one, it's just so foreign to us a lot of the times. It's so strange, and and it helps the Bible reader kind of keep going, particularly when the text is really difficult, or even some of the even the topics in the Old Testament text is really difficult and hard to swallow sometimes. But we're gonna be in the New Testament a little bit today. You uh preached on this topic recently, or on this passage out of Luke. We're in Luke right now. Um we're gonna start with Luke 16 today. And I was kind of wondering, it might be helpful just to reset like what is a gospel? Right? What is a gospel?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah, so the uh it's actually that that's actually a really important question because there's a lot of modern scholarship that's talking about the genre of what the gospels are, and that really helps explain why things are the way they are. And sometimes the critiques that people make about the Bible being unreliable apply when you don't know what a gospel is. So, what a gospel is not is the court stenographer's transcript of the events, starting at this point, ending at this point. It's not the verbal description of a closed circuit television. So, Luke, for example, if you go to Luke chapter 1, verse 1, Luke says, uh, I wrote all this stuff down here where we are. Luke 1.1. Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught. So Luke says, I put these things in order, which doesn't mean chronological order necessarily, it's the order that makes sense to tell it. And he has it, he has an agenda. He wants you to have to trust that it's there. So the gospels are not biographies of Jesus in the way that we would use the term today. They have this faith component. They want you to see Jesus as the Messiah. John says that right off. He says, This is written that you may believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing have life in his name. That's John chapter 20. Uh, we have four of them. We have four of them.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yep. And each of them have a different perspective. A different perspective. Um in Luke's gospel, he he says that there were eyewitnesses. And oftentimes, particularly in modern um, I wouldn't call it biblical scholarship, but just modern Bible teaching, we we will we will say that they are eyewitness accounts. Yeah. Which is not inherently wrong. Right. Um but it's not exactly it's it's not the way we would say there was an eyewitness account of of that tornado that went through that basketball gym or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah, for example, um, none of them are I don't know, forgive me, I don't know the right term for this in literature, but none of them are told from one person's limited point of view all the way through. Right? They they have there's that there's things that are narrated that are not from one person's point of view. So even that breaks down. Yeah. An eyewitness in court can only talk about what he saw, what she experienced. They're not like that. So there's four of them.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

And by the way, just the word gospel, that that was not that's not a new word for these people. There's that's there's a Greek word that was used long before this.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yeah, so gospel is an English word. Goss um is rel it's you can see it becomes the word good, the G-O-S sign, and spell is the word for like we might say like spiel, like in German. It's the word for tale or like story or news, like the account of something. So spell good story, good news. Good. That's what it's English. It's the English term of it. The Greek term is U Angelion, which means EU for like good in English letters, like a good prefix. Angelion is is message. It's where we get the word angel, and angel is a messenger in Greek Angelos. So it's good message, and it's a technical term that would be like when you win a battle and you send a messenger to tell people they've won the battle. That's the good news. So they're they've co-opted a Greek political term, which they do with the word church as well, uh, and some other Greek words. They've co-opted it and use it for their account.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

So this and this youangelion goes all the way back even to like Alexander the Great days and you where where um and what they would what Alexander the Great's or any of these other conquering sort of um figures would, they would send someone forward and say, Um, there's a new kingdom at hand. There's a new, like, here are the good news. There's life is gonna be different now. There's a new, there's a new king in town, there's a new whatever their aim is, but it definitely there's a there's a link to a historical link to this term being used in that way. Like there's a new way of life coming to you.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

There is, and I don't have it in my mind right now, but there's this term is literally used describing the birth of Augustus, who become or Octavian who becomes Augustus the first emperor. It's literally about his gospel, the good news of him. And as uh N. T. Wright likes, has this little equip he likes to say, which is actually really profound. I quote it a lot. The gospel is good news, not good advice. That's actually a really profound idea that it's about a thing that happened that's good, not um please live this way. And there's life and vice in it, but that's not the primary meaning of the word. It's about the resurrection, well, about the incarnation, about the resurrection. So there are four of them. This is kind of cool. There are no ancient manuscripts, literally none. They've never been found, there are none, zero anywhere, that don't always have the title on them, the gospel according to Luke, the gospel according to Matthew. In other words, there was never this version circulating, and then later on we say the name Mark added to it. So from the very beginning, it was always as old as we have. We have no, the better way to put it is there are no contrary examples to this. There are no examples where Luke 1.1 begins without a title above it that says the gospel according to Luke. So why does why is that significant? That means from the very earliest days, the early church was trying to, it was always tied back to a particular person. So the idea that these were circulating anonymously and then 100 years later, they said, well, let's let's say that it was from Mark is totally historically false. It never happened. That's actually a really big deal because it means in the early church they knew who these people were. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

It would also matter that they came from them. That itself would be some type of authenticating mark or or um marker of trustworthiness or or something. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

And it gets even weirder though because they're not important people. So it was always associated with an unimportant person. Always. So just think about what that means for its providence. It means that they weren't trying to say, well, it was actually uh uh Pontius Pilate who wrote this, or some important person, or uh who's who's the Caiaphas, the high priest, or some like that. It was always a nobody, but they wanted you to know the nobody's name. It was important to the early church. That's really interesting. It's it's actually a really, really important apologetic point because it shows that the early church wasn't trying to pull a fast one in anybody about what it was related to. Often the the argument is um that this is this is the this is the this is the um deconstruction argument. Well, Jesus was a good guy, he was died died, and then people kind of wanted to act like he kept living because they kind of believed in him in their hearts, so they kind of talked about it, and then later on the church said he was actually divine. And that's not true. That's historically false, as as the gospels tell us from the very beginning.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

So there are four of them. And by the way, um, I think in the language called Syriac, like related to the word Syria, there's an ancient language called Syriac. There was a a gospel harmony written where all four of them were put together, and uh, it has a technical term related to the Greek term for four, like the fourfold thing. And the early church said, We're not gonna do that. We don't like that. We want to have all distinct ones because they wanted the different voices speaking into it, which is also there's that's another interesting point there. Yeah, they wanted like a multivalent approach.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Well, and also just let's let's leave it the way it is, the way it came to us. Right. Like this is how we received it, this is how we're gonna pass it.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

There's a conservative impulse there.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah, that's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

They're all uh okay. The manuscripts we have are all written in Greek, Greek. Every now and then there's a slight argument about the gospel of Matthew that perhaps it was a Hebrew gospel, because there's a few evidence reasons for that, but but I don't I don't know that anybody really believes that all the time. I don't know. But basically we only have Greek gospels. So that tells you something. Uh that's the language of the ancient world. Um yeah. And and they are they they but they weren't all they were um very quickly, there was four of them, but they the very earliest days, it seems like they kind of arise from different parts of the Mediterranean world, which makes sense. There's a little church community here, and they know Mark, and the little church community here, and they know John, and it goes from there.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Hmm. Interesting. Okay, so we're in the Gospel of Luke, and gospels are different than all the other parts of the of the scriptures and their aim, like what they're trying to accomplish. Youangelion, the ki a a new kingdom is at hand. Well, Jesus, Jesus would often teach in parables. He would use parables to try to like give pictures of what the kingdom was like. Yeah. And also maybe make I don't want to, I don't wanna I don't want to jump ahead, but he used them to get people thinking at a at a at a at a very basic level. Emily and I, my wife, we were talking about this the other night. We don't even really remember. We just don't have a lot of memory of of of Luke 16 at all. Like just the the whole chapter? The whole well, just the Or that parable. That the parable that we're about to talk about. It just it's so strange. And it's like maybe it's so strange that you just kinda forget about it. Um but why don't we read it? I'll just read starting from verse one. So Luke 16, verse one, and then I'll go uh until like verse 13. We'll do that. And we may we may even need to go beyond that, but but I'll just I'll start there. So Jesus also said to the disciples, quote, There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager. So the the the rich guy somehow figured out that his the manager who was looking over his estate and his possessions wasn't doing a good job and he fires him. He's wasting his possessions. He's fired. And the manager said to himself, What shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? Well, what am I going to do now? I lost my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I've decided what to do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. So summoning his master's debtors one by one, to the people that presumably the master has bankrolled in their lifestyles, their businesses, their whatever. They're almost kind of like wholesalers, I when you kind of get the numbers here. Yeah, somehow. Yeah, he's he's got some business arrangement with them and they're they're beholden to him because he, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Well, it could be, I'm talking out loud here, but it could be that he funded the planting of the olive grove. Like he he he's a rich guy, he funds the planting and the labor for the grove, and then they owe him Yeah, he's in he's an investor somehow.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

He's a he's a they owe him that they owe him the la the uh produce. You need to you need to um plant an olive grove or grow your own little small business, you go to the bank or you go to an investor, you raise money and you you do it. It's kind of what's happening here. But the guy that's getting fired, who was kind of overseeing all this stuff for the master, he's got a plan. So he goes to these debtors, How much do you owe my master? He said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, Take your bill, sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, How much do you owe? And the other one says, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, Take your bill and write eighty. So he's kind of um he's letting them off the hook a little bit. He's collecting, he's collecting only part of the debt or whatever. He's he's um he is taking the authority of the of the master, and he is um adjusting these people's bill. So that he would get in their good graces. That's what it says before that. Verse 8, the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. Verse ten. One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what? In that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Okay. So it's like it's kind of easy to track at least the narrative of the story. And then for me, when Jesus says that the master commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, it's like every successive sentence after that takes a takes a s a turn I didn't expect, and then I kind of lose the entire plot.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

I think eight, I think you're right. I think verse eight, the master commended him for his shrewdness. That's the point that both it's both the key to understanding the parable and the weirdest part of it. Do you get remember in the 90s there were those paintings or like posters? They have them like Walden books. That was used to be- Did you ever go to Walden Books in the mall? I remember the name. Yeah. It was like a mall bookstore. Yeah. And they'd have these posters, they were like dinosaurs or sharks, and like you had to like focus your eyes and it would be like 3D. Remember that? It was like kind of hard to do, and you couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

You have to like cross your eyes and this like strange, like blur.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

It was like made it kind of 3D, kind of like. Yeah, I remember doing that. Yeah. Um you kind of have to do that here, whereas if you if you if you do what you think it's supposed to say, you'll miss the point of it entirely. If you pay attention to actually what Jesus is saying, then it makes sense. And so you immediately know this is not a realistic parable in the sense of there's no verisimil verisimilitude here in verse eight. No one, no master would commend the guy who's ripping him off. It doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

And so In some ways, in some ways, it's like in some ways, it's like if your kids do like a bad thing, but once you've kind of disciplined them and we've worked it all out, you send them to bed, you go back to your room, you're with your wife, and you're like, it was pretty smart. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

I mean Yeah, they they used Right. I can't even think of some crazy they used something precious to get to solve a problem that wasn't really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Yeah. So it's definitely they definitely did the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

But but then you're kind of like, all right, well, it was pretty quite a bit of ingenuity there.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Right. And I think that I mean that's sort of going on, but it's even more bizarre than that, because the master obviously would would bring charges against the steward. So he commends him. And he'd already fired him. He's already fired him, yeah. So we know that there's something important here about the shrewdness, that that's what matters. And then, and then Jesus, and then the rest of verse 8 kind of sets it up. The people of this age get what's in their own self-interest and they can work according to that. So you guys who are from the age to come, I'm setting up the juxtaposition here, you're from the age to come. You all need to be shrewd about how things work in the kingdom and get things done accordingly. Live according to those values. That ultimately is what the parable is about. Stop. Take inspiration from the people who know how to get things done according to this world and do it according to the world to come. And then verse 9 is where the translation lets us down a little bit, and there's a ton of irony, I think, and winking and square quotes. Jesus says, make friends. So that is referencing earlier in the parable where the guy has decided to give the wholesalers off. That's what that's referencing. Make friends for yourselves. Um by doing the things now with the kind of wealth that leads people to unrighteousness, that fades away, like the pre- the basically the possessions of this world. That's what unrighteous wealth means in this sentence here. It doesn't mean ill-gotten wealth. It means wealth that's just not not permanent. It's temporal. Temporal, yeah. It's a and it can lead you astray pretty easily.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Which is so okay, so just very quickly, he's what he's not so what he's talking about, he's not making a moral statement about this type of wealth. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Correct. Right. 100%. That's right. That's right. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So it's not that you're supposed to like um do illegal things for the kingdom or something. Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Yeah, exactly. That's why this just translates.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: but in like so that you can give all the orphanage. Give all the cocaine money to the church or something. That's not what he's not saying that.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

And the reason we can say that is because verse 9 it's sort of strange, but you but it's verse 11 that makes it really clear. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? It's the age that is and the age to come. If you can't use the stuff in the age that is well, how are you going to use the stuff in the age to come? That's what he means there. Yeah, there's no moral judgment on the on the money in this particular case. Okay. And then the make friends. Okay. The sentence kind of begs the question, because look, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, unrighteous wealth, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. Well, who is they? Yeah. Right? Well, it's not the people you're bribing, you're not meant to bribe people like the dishonored manager. And by the way, it's the eternal tents, is the word there. Like the same word for um he the word became flesh and made his his tabernacle among us. It's the word tabernacle, the tents. So there's all kinds of weird stuff going on there. What he's saying is basically, I think that they are the angels or the poor who will testify about you, or the people that matter. It's basically do it according to the right way, and you'll be rewarded for it. Is what he's sort of saying there.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Okay. Yeah, that's just such a challenging, it's such a it's it's like a like it bends your mind. Like you have to just you have to sit with it. This is what this is one of the downsides of the the reading format of this year is if you want to keep up, it's very difficult to sit with this for the next month in your prayer life and and really meditate on it and let um what I like to do with stuff like this is if it catches my attention, it'll just kind of be a part of my prayer life for the next indeterminable period of time. So it could be a week, it could be a month, however long it takes for the spirit to kind of unearth something for me. And that's very hard to do in this format. But I think I'm gonna have to do that with this one.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah, no, it's very strange. But the master, the the steward is street smart according to the rules of this world, and he works according to his own self interest and prepares for the coming eventuality. Okay. Jesus says. Y'all need to do the same thing in the values of the kingdom and prepare for the ultimate eventuality in a way that'll make sense to you at that time. That'll redound to your credit at that time. That's what he's saying.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Okay. Can I give you a scenario? So you and I know this man from a previous church ministry. And um I don't know if he listens to this. I'm trying to be careful here. But we love him. He is a he's a baker by trade. Okay. You know this man. Um and we would always when Jesus talks about the kingdom, in the kingdom, the the last will be first and the first will be last. I I would often say, not jokingly, um, we're all gonna be working for him, like in the kingdom, because of just how um he doesn't the way the way his life is going now doesn't conform to the the the way of the world, so to speak, but but he's absolutely a spirit-filled guy, and and so do you know who I'm talking about? I do. Okay. So would would would Jesus be saying that being shrewd for the kingdom is basically like associating ourselves with these guys? Um like these are the guys you're gonna want to be networked with, so to speak, eternally. Does that make sense to you? Yeah. What I'm is what I'm asking making sense? Yes, it does. Yeah. We kind of we kind of put people around us in, we like associating with people that are gonna advance our position in this life, um, whether it be in business or whatever. I don't even mean nefariously. I just mean that's just kind of what we do. Right. You know, hey, this is a good guy to know. Like, because he can, you know, there may be something you can do in business together later or something like that. But there are also other people that in the in the coming kingdom will be first. Like those are the good guys to know. Is that what Jesus is kind of saying? Like if you have if you're eternal-minded, like are you?

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah, I don't think he's not saying that. I think he would agree with that. I think I the maybe a more concrete example would be greater love hath Greater love hath no one than this to give his life for his friends. That actually doesn't make any sense according to the values of this age. So that's that that verse, that principle is an example of being shrewd for the kingdom. Jesus says it actually makes sense to show love by giving up your own life in this world. That actually makes sense because of the world to come and the values of that world. But that would be not shrewd according to the values of this world. That's an example of that. Okay. And so he's saying you get you guys got to learn how the kingdom works and live accordingly. The way that this guy gets it done, this dishonest manager, he gets it done. Yeah. And that's what he's saying. What he's not saying is Christians ought to be street smart according to the rules of this world. He he may or may not believe that, but that's not what he's saying. He's saying you need it's a it's a it's a parallel. As this guy is street smart according to this world, y'all need to be street smart according to the age to come. That's his point.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

So again, going back to the way that we started this episode, the gospel accounts, and particularly the the the accounts of things Jesus said and taught and did are all about this coming kingdom. Right? They have a they have a goal. He's trying to he's trying to he's trying to wake up, wake his disciples up and wake us up to the way the kingdom is and how like it's not they're not inherently um good advice, pieces of good advice, like you just said, where like a like a Dear Abbey section in the newspaper. But you would do well to to pay attention to the way the kingdom actually works and to live into that. Right? Something like that.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Yeah. Well, let's take one of these, everybody's all exercised about AI right now, and we don't, we don't know, nobody understands it really where it's gonna happen. But go back to a previous time. I I don't know, it'd be like trying to orient your life about blacksmithing and horseshoeing in 1910 versus orientating your life around the combustion engine. One did you ever um read the book Sea Biscuit or watch the movie Sea Biscuit? I think I watched it. So Jeff Bridges moves out to California. He's like the side plot and he starts a bicycle business. Do you remember this? He's like in the Bay Area or somewhere. He starts a bicycle business and then he moves to cars and he becomes fabulously wealthy, and he's the one who ends up buying, I think, Seabiscuit, the horse. So you follow his little entrepreneurial journey. Well, he moves to California at the right time at the turn of the last century, and then he does his bicycle, and then he moves into cars, and then it kind of works with him. Jesus is basically saying this new thing is coming and is already here. Don't orient. Yeah. I need you to be smart about the new thing that's coming and orient your life accordingly. That's the that's almost his entire message. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, Matthew chapter four. And this is another example of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Okay. So it's incredibly, it's incredibly confusing. If but but again, it's almost part of what makes it confusing to me is as I'm reading through these things, I have to package them analogously into ways I already think. Correct. Like that's the problem. Because that's how we understand everything. Right. Everything is is oriented. Your orientation to everything is like a derivative of how you already think. You've already decided what is true, and I don't even mean this in a bad way, and then you kind of package things around it. And that's what makes this so challenging. It's also important, I think, to realize like Jesus is talking to his disciples. Right. So even his goal, he may not necessarily be to record a thing that is to be used in all times and all places to learn how to live. Now, because he is God, you can you you can use his words. His words are good and trustworthy for all times and all places, but he's very specifically, he's talking to the 12. Or he's talking to at least the the his inner circle, whatever that number is. Yeah, and I think the point may not be the 12, but it's definitely people.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

And the point of the parable is to mess with your thinking to help you think in a new way. You're thinking the wrong way. That that might be how he would, it's almost another way of putting it. You guys are thinking the wrong way. Let me tell you the story. What the steward did right was he was real street smart. Y'all have got to be street smart, but according to this new way, this new reality, the way of the kingdom. Because it'll work for you in the future if you do it the right way now. So stop living in the old way. Be street smart according to the rules of the kingdom. That's what he's trying to say. Another example of that would be what does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? Take up your cross and follow me. Those words make no sense apart from the incoming reality of the kingdom. There, therefore, it makes sense to take up your cross. Otherwise, you'd want to avoid your cross. Why would you want a cross? The only reason you'd want to cross is because the cross leads to the crown, and he's showing the way. That's why you'd want it.

unknown 29:25

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Forgive the shoddy quote. But at some point, and I think he may have even be have been, he may have been quoting an Old Testament prophet, but he says, he kind of says, like, you know, listening they do not hear, seeing they do not perceive. Um that's how I feel with this passage. I feel like there are things, there are things in my life where I maybe I do kind of see what other people find it hard to see. I just spend so much time in this world, just working in the church, whatever. This is one of those where like I have to really, it's like there's a veil almost. Um that's just how it is for me. That's a particularly difficult one to just, it's like there's a veil. It's just so hard to pierce through and see with clarity what he's actually saying. You don't have that moment of just like, oh my gosh. Like the parable of the prodigal son or something.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Would it be hard if it stopped at verse eight? If it stopped at verse eight, the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. What? Why? That's weird. Well, I'm gonna tell you why. Because the sons of this world, guys, they know how to get things done in their in their in according to their terms in their generation. And they know they they get that more than the sons of light do with regard to the age to come. I'm adding that last sentence with regard to or the phrase, the age to come, but that's the that's the juxtaposition. The sons of this age versus the sons of light in the age to come. If it stopped there, would that help? Is it in verse nine that screws it up?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Probably. I don't know. Yeah. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings. Yeah, that's a weird thing to say.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

I think what he's doing, I think, like I said yesterday, I think he's doing a lot of square quotes and nudging and winking. Guys, so make friends for yourselves according to all this unrighteous wealth, so that they may receive you to the eternal tents. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. But this is a great example of the purpose of parables, which is to change how you think. Yeah. That's why that's why they're there. And when you read a parable like it's Aesop's Fables, you're going to come to the wrong conclusion.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Yeah. Well, and this is this is hundreds of years before, but why the psalmist says that blessed is the man or woman who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night. Like you, you actually, if you're not meditating on this stuff day and night, if you're not chewing on it, gnawing on it, wrestling with it, sitting with it, um I don't think we're gonna get what God has for us out of it. Like you can't, it's not, you don't just get the answers to the test. You have to sit with this stuff, and I'm gonna sit with this one for a while.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

But okay, but that would go back to this whole new way of thinking. Is the problem you just need more information, then it would just be bop, bop, bop. But if the problem is you think the wrong way, you're oriented the wrong way, then and it can't be given to you through information, it's given to you through transformative patterns, basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Yeah. It's very good, very difficult. Um I have found since we've been doing this podcast that it's actually way easier to help people along in the Old Testament, even though the Old Testament is more complicated, or the Old Testament is more foreign to us, but it has a narrative, it has a running narrative where the New Testament, the Gospels in particular, just have a different aim. And so there's there's just different parables and things that that it kind of some of them actually does matter when in his ministry that he said them and in what order and all those things, but for for for stuff like this, it's just it's just difficult. It's hard, but one thing we're trying to do is to go after those little tension points to help people keep moving and and and grow. So um, okay. So we have a question that's also from the book of Luke. And I want to let's just see where this goes. It might be easy to help someone out with this, it might not be. We'll see. Luke 18, 15 through 17. So I'm gonna read this, I'm gonna read the passage first, and then I'll ask the question. Okay. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Sarah asks, We know this is not a random event inserted into the text, so what's the connection with what is before? So what came before that was um a parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The persistent widow parable was before that. And then what comes after? The rich man, the rich young ruler, and about possessions and all that stuff. So to paraphrase, the question is why is this in here? Is there an order? Is there something to be gained from the order in which these parables are being told? What's what's going on with this with this passage?

SPEAKER_00 34:51

I like the premise of the question, which is it's gotta be have a reason. I think that's beautiful. And we don't always know the reasons, but I think that's the appropriate way to approach the Bible, to assume that it's great art and that the artist is smarter than you. And if you don't get it, you gotta sit with it. So you watch, you go to one of these old master's paintings, and you're just gonna look at the Rembrandt forever, and you're gonna assume he's brilliant. So the same thing going on here. Luke knows what he's doing. I think I think the reason is here, uh, one very simple reason is because he's told this parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector. This is Luke 18, 9. And the Pharisee thinks he's better than everybody, and the tax collector thinks he's not good at all. And Jesus says, that's a better spiritual state to be in, to think that you don't deserve anything, that you're not entitled. Entitlement is bad. Well, with these little children that are coming to him, he says, Um, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. So in the best way, children don't have a sense of entitlement. Now we don't know bratty kids who might, but he's this is like a positive view of a child. Just ready, just grateful to be there, happy to be there. He's saying, You've got to be like that. Don't have a sense of entitlement. So I think that's why that's particularly there. It's like a real he's told the parable, and then people are trying to keep the little kids from coming to him. And so Luke's saying, Don't you see what he's what kind of guy he is?

SPEAKER_01 36:09

I think that's why. We have four kids, as you know. And number four, she is almost two, should be two next month. And what's fun about that age is basically they believe everything that you tell them in a sense that um, and you're also like in injecting them or imbuing them with emotion too. So if we walk outside and the sun is down and the moon is up, we'll go, the moon. And she'll look at you and she'll go, the moon. Right. Like she's like, like she's just she just she just takes it. Like she's she has no um suspicion that you're lying to her or that your emotion is in is wrong, you should actually be another way. They get that later. Um but but that's what I think about when I think of of receiving faith like a child, like which churchy people might say, well, that's sometimes where this is why leadership is important in the church, because if people are are approaching, approaching Jesus with a childlike faith and and the work of the church is is messing with that somehow, then then that can mess people up. But forget about all that for right now. Um this is kind of what I think of is when a little child is like, oh yeah, that's they're like, oh yeah. Like, hey, you see that bunny? She's like, Oh, a bunny. She's excited. They excited. They she's pumped. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Yeah. And grateful for it and and listening to, yeah, that's good. That's a good example. Yeah, that's that would be a good example of a child. I think that's why that's there. Uh I I have we haven't done a deep dive of Luke at Asbury recently, so I have to, I'd have to, I don't, I know this is I know what's happening here. Jesus is moving toward Jerusalem, ready to be crucified and all that, but I have to look at the larger scheme of the book. But I think that's probably why that's there. But I love the premise of the question. What a beautiful premise.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Yeah. It's a great Bible question. This kind of doesn't seem like it belongs, but I'm sure it belongs for some reason. And it there must be a reason behind the order in which it's there. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

And Luke is not. Luke is smart. He's he's not dumb. He puts stuff, he packages it. Well, okay, let's go back to that opening uh prologue. I've put things together so you'll have certainty in these things. So the whatever the whatever reason this is here, one practical point is he wants you to have faith in Jesus because of it.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Yeah. Is it worth hitting real quick with just a couple minutes left here? The parable before, the the stark contrast between the Pharisee and the and the tax collector, just I'm always wondering who's listening that that maybe the gospels or any of the Bible at all are new to them. So um we we've been doing this for a while. By we, I just mean those and a lot of our listeners have been reading the Bible for a while. So to hear a tax collector, like what does that mean? Well, there's a I mean, there's a historical reason why that is why that particular term, and that might not be the term we would use for for that type of person if we were writing a gospel from 2026, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Yeah. Well, I think so in so not not the Romans don't control every part of the what we would call the Holy Land or Israel at the time of Jesus. They control the southern part and they have contracted out the northern part to some client kings. So Galilee is in a different political jurisdiction than Jerusalem area. In the Jerusalem area, the Romans are in charge and they hire local people to collect their taxes for them. So you're already working with the Romans. That's bad. And the way they worked is they have a tax farming system where you get a license to collect taxes, and as long as you pay the Romans their share, you have the legal right to take as much as you want from somebody. So it's obviously open to abuse. And you can imagine they're taking it from some old lady and some poor widow. So they were just despised. But they are Jewish people. They're not out, they're not pagans. Yep, there it is. Yeah, they're Jewish people. And so they're both in the parable in Luke 18, verses 9 and following, they're both in worship. And they're at the temple in Jerusalem. And the Pharisee thinks, I'm not, I'm not bad like these guys. And the tax scripture knows that he knows that he's in a bad, he knows that he's sinned.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

So, one way, this is not just a Bible teacher that I heard talk about this several years ago, maybe in a seminary class or something. I can't remember. I thought this was really helpful. So the fact that they are Jewish and they are collecting taxes from the Jews and profiting from it and giving that money to the Romans, the reason why it's like triple bad is because they're in the promised land. Right? So they're in the land that God gave them, this holy land. And they're there's a um, I want to be careful here. There's like a um, there's like sexual imagery that comes from their the Romans occupying holy land has like a has like a uh like a sexual unfaithfulness like imagery to it. As in like they're you know, in the Bible going back to Babylon and all kinds of stuff in the Old Testament, God will often say you're whoring after other gods, things like that. So I don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Committing adultery. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Yeah, yeah. There's an adulterous, there's an adulterous, like sexual sort of imagery behind some of this stuff and a pain. So it's considered an abomination that these Gentiles, these occupation forces, are um basically have authority and have taken authority and inside the promised land over God's people. So the fact that these tax collectors then flip and are work for whatever reason, they've got their reasons, are working for this um adulterous situation, are taking money from the covenant people of God, making money themselves and then giving it over to the Romans. You can just see you can you can feel the pain and why these are such despised people. Um so the the way that I the way that I interpret this or think about this is these are the tax collectors and sinners, they're absolutely the wrong kind of people. Right? Like you are there are people in our society in 2026, regardless of what side of political aisle you're on or whatever, you don't want your friends to know that they were at your house having dinner and you wouldn't go to their house because of what they believe or whatever. You can we're so polarized. It's very similar to that. We might nobody likes paying taxes either today, but this is different even then. So different. This is not the same thing as an IRS agent or something like that. Like this is this is um this isn't a this is like a cultural adult adultery situation happening here.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

So anyway, um later we'll hear the story of Zacchaeus and tax collectors and sinners are all over this thing.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

The next chapter, Luke 19 is Zacchaeus. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

All right. Um, I think that's it for today. We spent a fair amount of time in the Gospel of Luke, which has been good because we've been in the Old Testament most of this, um, most of this year. Please, please, please go to year throthebible.com, submit your Bible questions. They're good. We enjoy reading them and uh they give us a little bit of direction for the things we want to cover. As always, I'm Rodney. I'm Andrew. Let's go. See you next time.